School of Nursing Home

Funded Research and Projects
Laree Hiser

Kim Welch Hoover, PhD, RN

Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Evaluation
School of Nursing
University of Mississippi Medical Center
2500 North State Street
Jackson, MS  39216-4505
USA

Phone: 601.984.6221
Fax: 601.815.5957
E-mail: khoover@son.umsmed.edu

Dr. Kim Welch Hoover is Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Evaluation at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) School of Nursing. In her role as Associate Dean, Dr. Hoover provides oversight for faculty and student generated research and grants, and facilitates all evaluation-related activities. Dr. Hoover has a critical role directing the Magnet Research Initiatives for the University Hospitals and Clinics. She was recently selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow.

For the past seven years, Dr. Hoover has been instrumental in building the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce – one of the most active and widely cited nursing centers in the country.  She has served as project director, director of research, and most recently, as research consultant. Her work includes the annual collection, analysis and dissemination of comprehensive nursing workforce data for Mississippi.  Dr. Hoover presents this work and is often sought as a data consultant at the state, regional and national levels.

Most recently, Dr. Hoover authored The Politics of the Nursing Workforce in Mason, Leavitt, & Chaffee’s Policy and Politics for Nursing and Healthcare (2006). In 2005, she co-authored two chapters in Rice & Cleary (Eds.) Nursing workforce development: Strategic state initiatives, winner of American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award in both History and Public Policy and Professional Development and Issues categories.

Dr. Hoover is active on state and national committees and maintains memberships in the American Nurses Association, Academy Health, American Organization of Nurse Executives, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, Southern Nursing Research Society, and Phi Kappa Phi. Awards include the Jan Evers Faculty Fellowship Research Award (2006), AACN Leadership for Academic Nursing Fellow (2004), Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Higher Education Appreciation Day Working for Academic Excellence (HEADWAE) Award (2002) and Leadership Appreciation Recognition from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Colleagues in Caring (2002).

Research Overview
Research Interests
  • Health Systems
  • Patient Safety and Quality Improvement
  • Health Related Workforce

Dr. Hoover’s health systems outcomes research began with a study examining hospital organizational and nurse staffing variables and their impact on hospital patient outcomes.

Since 2000, she has collected, analyzed and disseminated nursing workforce data for the state of Mississippi through the MS Office of Nursing Workforce. These data are disseminated annually in state health plan publications and web publications. She currently serves on multidisciplinary dissertation committees involving health services research.